It’s wheelchair maintenance day today. That sounds a lot fancier than the reality, but the damn things do require more attention than I’d originally expected. Of course, mine gets a lot more hammering than most and has done a lot of miles in the couple of years I’ve had it, not always on the most gentle of ground.

But if you’re new to wheelchair use, you really do need to keep an eye on a few things. Simple stuff, for the most part. Footrests have a habit of working loose and are a huge pain to adjust while you’re out and about. I’ve noticed mine skimming bumps on the surface, from time to time, in the past. You don’t want to get stuck. It’s just an allen key job, but take the whole thing off and make sure there’s no dirt in the joints. Take care when you’re putting it back in; depending on the type, you can easily get one side stuck if it’s not nice and level as you push it in. And it’s a bugger to get back out if you can’t use your legs. A leverage issue most wheelchair users will be familiar with.

Check your spokes, too. Not all chairs can have the type that can easily come loose but one of my sets of wheels does. I think they must have been loose in one wheel when I bought it because a few months later, some of the spokes had bent, which effectively ruined the wheel. Thankfully, they were under warranty. They ain’t cheap. So just check every so often that your spokes are nice and tight. If you don’t know how to tighten them, take them to a bike shop, they should be able to sort you out.

I have the type of seat and backrest that are struts bound with velcro straps. They do tend to give way over time and need tightening. This is a huge pain for me because of the way I’ve had to strap the back up (because one of the struts broke, somehow) and because I have various other straps attached for clipping a bag to, holding a walking stick etc. So make sure that’s all nice and tight, too. The sagging kind of sneaks up on you and since you’re in the chair all day, you want it to be right.

Those are the main things. I clean and lightly grease my axles every few weeks and I remove the castors to check for dirt building up inside and to make sure they’re still tight. I also like to check the screws on the back hinge mechanism because I’m paranoid and I don’t trust it.

Most of these little jobs require nothing but a set of allen keys. I keep one of these things in my chair, which is both very useful and excellent engineering porn. It covers the vast majority of what I need.

The next job is painting the frame. I’ve had a few crashes due to hitting potholes at unwise speed and have quite a lot of scratches and gouges in the frame. It’s aluminium, so no real need to cover them up other than a cosmetic one, but I’ve bought the paint now, so I’ll probably do it in time for Christmas.

I’m generally a fairly relaxed person, but I get seriously uptight when my chair is out of commission, even if I have no plans to go anywhere. It’s a sudden, complete lack of independence. So keep up with the maintenance, if you can. It could save you a lot of stress.

I raise money for nia by doing wheelchair half marathons. I have six planned for 2023. All donations go directly to nia to support their vital work delivering services to end violence against women and girls. Thanks to the generosity of so many people out there, I raised about £3000 this year and I’ll try to beat it in 2023.

If you’d like to donate, my crowdfunder is here. Your donations are greatly appreciated by this small charity which has been doing excellent work for women and girls who are survivors of sexual and domestic violence, including prostitution, since the 70s.